XL Fight Pizza Weekend Extravaganza

feat. ONE Winter Warriors, Bellator 272, & RIZIN 33

Three promotions, one post. Oh yeah, this is just the kind of Asia-centric MMA buffet you crave. One XL Fight Pizza with everything, please.

ONE WINTER WARRIORS

The ONE Atomweight Grand Prix has gone from a very exciting idea to a (minor) train wreck. We’ve seen some weird results and bad performances and unfortunate injuries, but hey, it’s almost over. Tonight is the final of much improved Ritu Phogat against Stamp used-to-be-Fairtex. But before that, we have a raft of fun fights and fun fighters.

First up is Yuya Wakamatsu who I’ve been super fond of ever since he gave Mighty Mouse a mini-mouse under his eye in DJ’s first ONE bout. I was in attendance at that show in Tokyo and saw another fighter on tonight’s card, Timothy Nastyukhin, whip up on Eddie Alvarez. Wakamatsu faces Chinese fighter Hu Yong in the opening fight of Winter Warriors.

Wakamatsu wins and it’s not the big KO we’ve come to expect from him, but a comfortable and comprehensive decision.

Another fun fighter and big KO artist is up next as Korean upset specialist Kang Ji Won takes on Brazilian Jiu-jitsu superstar Marcus Buchecha. Let’s expect a timid decision and hope for the reverse jinx.

No, uh, yes! Kang Ji Won cannot stop Buchecha’s first takedown attempt and that’s the beginning of the end by easy RNC submission in round one. I honestly expected more from the Korean fighter.

Next, Timofey “Tim Nasty” Nastyukhin is rematching Dagi Arslanaliev whom he lost to a few years back. Both guys throw bombs and it should be a fun one.

Bombs are indeed thrown in round one and both fighters do big damage with Tim Nasty taking a massive cut to the cheek and Dagi’s nose going crooked. Round two is ugly for Tim as the cut opens more and looks like a nasty extra orifice on his cheek. Tim and his third-face-eye look pleadingly at the ref several times like maybe he wants out. He also gets slammed a couple of times. Wowsers. Big KO early in the third for Dagi and it’s mercifully over.

After a kickboxing break, it’s time for the Atomweight Grand Prix final. As I’ve said elsewhere, I expect Ritu to win, which is kind of surprising considering I didn’t originally have her getting out of the first round of the tournament. She’s improved a lot and has some substantial ground and pound. I just don’t think Stamp can last if she gets taken down. We’re about to find out.

I’m totally wrong. Stamp shows way more well-rounded MMA skill than I thought she had, while Ritu does a bad Ben Askren impression. Stamp has great takedown defense in round one and then submits Ritu by armbar early in the second. Great performance from Stamp who seemed to fall apart a couple years back as she was trying to fight in both Muay Thai and MMA. Now that she’s limited her focus, she’s doing really well. An attractive fight between her and Angela Lee awaits for sure.

Champ Regian Eersel takes the kickboxing main event by split decision and it didn’t seem that close to me; I still have to write about Bellator in about 8 hours, so I’ll call it. Quality ONE event as usual.

Bellator 272

This is the night we’ve been waiting for since Kyoji Horiguchi signed with Bellator, but we have many fights to get through before the main event Bantamweight Championship pitting him against Sergio Pettis. I don’t want this post to be insanely long, so I’ll just comment on some highlights before the big fight.

Dan Moret and recently-UFC-fighter Spike Carlyle are in a crazy early war as Spike is getting his ass periodically whooped, but gets the surprise third round RNC win. Spike summoned the spirit of Monty Python’s Black Knight with his walkout costume and has a big Bellator debut.

Long Series of Prototype Bellator Wrestler Decisions 😴💤💤💤💤💤

Huh, what, uh, oh yeah. Prelims, schmeelims. The main card will certainly rule. 😳🤞

The main card starts well with a first round finish as undefeated Johnny Eblen throws big hands at an overmatched Colin Huckbody. After the fight, they announce the participants in next year’s Bellator Bantamweight Grand Prix and it’s a great crop of fighters, but I’m disappointed not to see more RIZIN representation. Maybe Kai Asakura or Naoki Inoue can sneak in as an alternate.

After that comes another big finish. They were indeed saving it for the main card. Josh Hill puts Jarred Scoggins out with a right hook as Scoggins shuffles in for something, a knee? For his big KO, Josh Hill instantly gets picked as the first alternate for the Grand Prix.

It’s scramble-y fun in an even first round of the co-main between Emmanuel Sanchez and Jeremy Kennedy. In a grappling-heavy second Kennedy has more control. Sanchez comes out swinging in the third and gets instantly taken down… Kennedy wins the decision.

The time is nigh! I’m stoked and feeling the big fight anticipation for sure. Sergio looks loose, Kyoji looks focused. Early on, Horiguchi is active, fast, and evasive. Sergio is very restrained. More of the same in the second, but Sergio manages to cut Kyoji in an exchange on the ground.

There are at least three times so far in this fight that Kyoji would have absolutely lit Sergio up under RIZIN rules with knees or soccer kicks, but alas.

It’s the third and Pettis really isn’t doing anything; Horiguchi gets another takedown and maintains control. 3-0.

WOW. HOLY SHIT. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

Pettis lands one spinning back fist and puts Horiguchi out cold to win the fight.

I’m sitting here in the fourth round and thinking okay, Pettis is doing a little better this round, Kyoji should probably take him down soon, and then WHAM. Game over KO after losing nearly every second of the preceding 17+ minutes.* Holy shit. Wild stuff. That’s why they don’t do these on paper. MMA is weird.

*I’m seeing some whiney, dismissive responses on Twitter like “so lucky” “what a fluke” “Kyoji was so much better” - uh, yeah, that’s why it was so awesome. The last minute Hail Mary game winning pass is always more interesting than the the 59 minutes of slow competence that came before it. Sergio pulled that out of nothing and deserves the plaudits and the glory. Props to ya, my man.

Kyoji will be back. Both fighters in fact, in the Bellator Bantamweight GP.

RIZIN 33

We’ve got a bad news / good news** situation happening with RIZIN 33. The bad news is that Japan is closing its doors for COVID MEGATRON for at least a month, so it’s highly unlikely we’ll be seeing any foreign fighters not already based in Japan. The good news is we’ve still got a kick ass RIZIN Bantamweight Grand Prix to work through. The announced bouts are what I called back in the day:

We also have an alternate bout between Kintaro and Yuki Motoya. This should be a good fight, but it absolutely should have been Kintaro vs Alan “Hiro” Yamaniha, who pushed Kai Asakura to the limit in their fight in the last round of the tournament.

Roberto Satoshi Souza against an unnamed opponent is the other announced bout - his opponent was possibly one of the losses of the new COVID entrance policy. Stay tuned for more on RIZIN 33 as it evolves. ✌️🍕

**In some even worse news I recently spotted, RIZIN sent out a call for support from its fans through LENDEX to the tune of roughly $450,000 for operating expenses for RIZIN 33 - this of itself is not unusual and they’ve done it several times even outside of early pandemic crowdfunding. The ugly part is that in the loan application they list their debt as $1.5 million and their net income as a measly $80,000… I’m not sure what the time frame is on that, but it ain’t pretty. RIZIN most certainly does not have the kind of VC cash that ONE can somehow burn through and will be in big trouble if they can’t start turning a profit - I suspect this lack of institutional support may be due to the unsavory reputation of CEO Sakakibara’s former business partners, but can’t say for sure. It remains to be seen if the new cheaper shows like Landmark and Trigger can provide ballast and improve the situation or if all the flailing around for new shit will just further sink the ship. 🚢